Marcelo Gullo, the Argentine historian and author of the Madre Patria trilogy, continues to face persecution for his academic and educational efforts aimed at debunking the Black Legend about Spain in the Americas.

The latest episode occurred this past Friday, April 4, when Agnes Bosch, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Puerto Rico, informed the organizers—the Association of Hispanists of Puerto Rico—that the event had been canceled.

What many already consider an act of censorship was announced on social media just hours before the lecture was scheduled to take place at the faculty at 11:00 a.m., an event that had been confirmed by the institution weeks in advance.

“Unfortunately, we must inform you that, by unilateral decision of the University, the lecture that Marcelo Gullo was to deliver today, April 4, has been canceled,” the organizers posted, also announcing that the lecture would be held at a different location, to be announced shortly.

The lecture, titled Spain, Motherland of Hispanic America, was only the first of a full schedule that is officially set to continue next Monday at the Iberia Hotel, where Gullo is staying.

“I want to say that I received a very warm welcome in Puerto Rico from the organizers of this conference, and people have even come from the United States to hear me speak. I was invited by the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Puerto Rico, through the Association of Hispanists directed by Professor Lariana Olguín, but last night the very Dean of the University, Mrs. Agnes Bosch, prevented the lecture from taking place,” Gullo told Infobae.

“Because of its essentially Hispanic message”

Gullo has received messages of support from around the world throughout the day via social media. One especially significant gesture came from Víctor Colón, a Puerto Rican professor who had planned to attend the lecture with his students and denounced the cancellation “because of its essentially Hispanic message.”

“Let the enemies of our Hispanic essence be warned. The nobility of our people has survived attacks, plagues, hurricanes, earthquakes, colonialism—and it is still alive. We speak in Spanish, we love in Spanish, we pray in Spanish, and today in Spanish we shout: you will not silence us.”

By José María Carrera Hurtado.

Translation by Joana Campos.

This article was originally published in Spanish by Religión en Libertad.